With North Korea's government issuing a series of threats to both South Korea and the U.S., Korean Tourism Organization CEO Charm Lee has been traveling the world to say that South Korea is safe and open for travel. Destinations Editor Johanna Jainchill sat down with Lee to discuss safety and travel in South Korea.
Q: With all these threats from Kim Jong Un, is it safe to travel to South Korea?
A: It's the same situation as it's been for the last 50 years. North Korea has always been belligerent and threatening with military action in order to blackmail the world into giving them more support. But they know very well that they would never risk being annihilated in a war or any confrontation. North Korea is an absurd kind of country ruled by a small group of people with absolute power and privilege. [Kim Jong Un] is portrayed as a crazy guy, but he's well educated in this system of using the military rhetoric to get more concessions.
It's much safer in Seoul or anywhere in Korea than in many places in the world. It's very safe, and there's very little crime. You can go out at night in the city of Seoul and, as a woman, have no fear of violence or anything. It's a very safe, clean and wonderful place.
Q: Have any countries issued travel warnings to South Korea?
A: No. In fact, this year in the first three months, until the end of March, we have had an increase in visitors of about 5% compared to last year. It is unusual that we have so many tourists in the first quarter of the year. We are especially seeing a strong increase from mainland China. Up through the last few days, there were 100% more visitors from China than last year. China is the only ally of North Korea, and they're not worried. If there was no North Korea threat ... and the Western press didn't get excited about it, we probably would have had even bigger records this spring.
Q: Have you seen any reduction in tourism as a result of this?
A: We haven't had any visible reduction in tourism flow. It's actually increasing. [From the U.S.] there have been some cancellations, but we haven't had minus figures. From some countries, we're seeing cancellations in group travel. Groups come together and some members get worried, so the whole group decides not to come. But we've had more individual tourists. Funny enough, tourism to the DMZ grew by about 30%. Last week we went with a whole group of journalists from Europe and the U.S. When they first came they thought there was almost war there, and they went to where you can see the North Korean guards staring at you, and right next to it they are selling T-shirts.
Q: On the ground in South Korea, has anything changed in people's everyday lives?
A: Not at all. The news of [Korean pop sensation] Psy's new hit [was] bigger than news about Kim Jong Un. My own house is close to the North Korean border, and my life is not in the least influenced by that.
Q: What message can travel agents give their clients to reassure them?
A: Look at the numbers. For the first three months of this year, Korea had a very strong increase in tourism. March was the first month we ever had with more than 1 million visitors. And most of the visitors come from the Asian region and among them are Chinese.
As long as there are a lot of Chinese in Seoul, the North Koreans are not going to do anything. Nothing's changed. The rhetoric gets stronger, and they will shoot a missile in the water or do a nuclear test, but they've been doing that for a long, long time.
Follow Johanna Jainchill on Twitter @jjainchilltw.